Ghost Restore "Single User"

They need to restore their system using the restore disks provided by the manufacturer.

Desktop is an Advent 3411. There are 3 restore CDs & it sounds like this is based on Ghost.
First disk boots but then there is an error message "Single User Version - Cannot do multiple loads".

Turns out the machine was restored with these disks about 12 months ago.

Question: How does the machine know? The CDs are inert so there must be a file or partition sitting on the desktop that the CD has checked to find the restore has already been done. Any ideas what to reset so the machine can be restored again?

I'm sure this would work but as the OS on the machine needs restoring they do not have net access (I'm trying to help them from a distance).

What I'm looking for is something that can be done with the machine and restore disks they already have to get it back up again.

Really it hinges on why this Ghost error is cropping up and what can be done to get past it. It seems unlikely that the disks are faulty as they have been kept safely since the last restore. I've got some leads from Symantec but wondered if this was something experts here had come across before?

It is likely that the restore disc is looking for a very specific configuration (for copyright protection of the OS software). I'm guessing that the restore discs came with a different computer or the user has modified their computer (adding, removing, replacing components) enough to trip the copy protection on the restore disc.

Solution: Get the right restore discs (the ones that came with THAT computer)
OR (if they *are* the ones that came with the computer)
Reconfigure the box to be as it was when it arrived from the manufacturer

When performing a Recovery using the CDs included with the system, it is recommended that when prompted for the next CD(s) during the Recovery process to wait approximately 10 seconds after inserting the CD, but before clicking OK

The PC has two optical drives, CD-RW at the top, DVD-RW underneath. They seem to be connected using IDE cable select.
The top drive is the slave.

Putting the disks into the DVD drive works fine! I thought initially when I heard this that the restore disks must be DVDs but no it's the drive letter that holds the key. The ghost file seems to only run if it is in the correctly labelled drive.

No instructions, no help from support, just have to work it out yourself. I wonder if that's why there are so many sites offering new sets of recovery disks? Users try to get them to work get the error message and then buy a new set - even though there's are fine they just need to put them in the other drive.

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